The recent Xbox showcase during Summer Game Fest 2025 had two Japanese treats in store for us. A shadowdrop of Final Fantasy XVI (including all DLC) on that very day, and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade coming to Xbox later this year. As a forever fan of the series, I’m a happy camper and now I’ll own every mainline Final Fantasy title on a single console.
But how does this version hold up against the PS5 version and should you play it on Xbox or your PC? (windows 11 is supported through Xbox Play Anywhere). That’s what we’ll dive into in this review…
ā¹ļø Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher. This review is the personal opinion of the writer.
| Developer | Square Enix |
| Publisher | Square Enix |
Things I liked!
- Ready? Set. Action! | Final Fantasy XV explored real-time combat and ditching the turn-based attacks completely, Final Fantasy 7 Remake gave us a healthy mix of both worlds, but Final Fantasy XVI is a full-on action title that only has the themes and levelling structures you’d expect from a JRPG. Veterans of the series may miss the turn-based attacks from old (especially after Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has kicked of the genre survival) but I welcomed the breath of fresh air to the series and the all-out display of flashy attacks on my screen. It feels GREAT to play!
- Accessibility | It’s an action game now, but you can choose to play on easy and even equip items that have you dodge attacks automatically, if you just want to enjoy the story. I appreciate that you can make Final Fantasy XVI as hard as you want it to and thus open it up to more inexperienced players. and you can change at any time!
- Fantastic Music | FF16 doesn’t disappoint when it comes to your ears. The music is as amazing as you’d expect from the series with even some of my favourite renditions of classic tunes that sound more epic than ever. I could listen to Final Fantasy music all day, and I’d be a happy man.
- Game of Fantasies | The story has a lot in common with Game of Thrones, especially at the start of the game. Families fighting each other in wars over territories, increasingly more magic as the story progresses and even some nudity scenes and cursing you’d expect from that show have made it into Final Fantasy, with plenty of F-bombs throughout.
- Downloadable Contentment | The DLC episodes are very much worth playing and offer significant challenge. I wasn’t ready with FF16 when I first saw the credits roll and was extremely happy with the two add-on episodes that dropped later. Just know that this is end-game content and you’ll have to play through 90% or more of the base-game before you can access them.
- Achievements | I know, I know. This seems like a very silly positive to list. But it really is enough motivation to play through the game again for me. and somehow I don’t care as much about optional content or challenges on other platforms, but on Xbox I’ll always try to go for 1000G in a game I enjoy. Final Fantasy coming to Xbox alone might not have been the motivation I needed to play through it again so quickly after beating it 2 years ago. But the achievements tipped the scales for me.
- Xbox Play Anywhere | again, not really a bullet point for the game itself, but for the platform and how you can also play the game on your PC or any device that support Xbox Play Anywhere. The PC version of Final Fantasy XVI is the best one available, both in visuals as well as performance, but only if you have the hardware to run it. More on this below…
Mixed & disliked!
- Muddy textures, soft details and worse resolution | While the PS5 version dropped some frames in performance mode (not that I ever noticed) the visual fidelity was a lot better than what we got on Xbox (even Series X). The textures look muddy and washed out, details are lost on surfaces and clothes and if you’re playing in performance mode, the resolution is a shameful 720p. Sure, you’ll have a steady 60 fps, but the cost is too high. Final Fantasy is known for pushing the visual limits of the console generation and I’m just not feeling that anymore. Don’t get me wrong, the game still has excellent visual design, it’s just that it clearly wasn’t made with this console in mind.
- I miss the dualsense | What blasphemy is this? Praising the PS5 controller on a website dedicated to Xbox? Final Fantasy XVI was one of the games that made great use of the unique features from the DualSense, from minor things like changing the LED-lights to fit the moment in-game and having sounds come out of the controller at the right time. To something that just feels downright silly now: Heavy doors and Levers require “extra effort” to open or pull, and this was clearly inserted into the game to show off the adaptive triggers… Which are missing on the Xbox controller and just feel weird whenever you get prompted on-screen to hold RT.
- No cross-platform saves | I would have killed to transfer my savefile from the PS5 to the Xbox and start a New Game + run from the start. I would have been able to blaze through the story content. I realize this is a big ask, but if Ubisoft can offer it over their Ubisoft Connect, than Square Enix could look into such a feature as well.
- The Ending slightly disappoints | I love the story in Final Fantasy XVI, but I like the start of the game a lot better than how it ends. We had a Game of Thrones-like opening chapter, with stories grounded a little in reality (give or take an Eikon wreaking havoc and people casting magic) but by the end of the game, it falls into the “kill god” JRPG/Final Fantasy trope that I could have missed for once.
CONCLUSION
Score: 89/100
It pains me to say, but Xbox definitely is not the best place to play Final Fantasy XVI. It’s still the great JRPG it was at launch on PS5, but the graphics have taken a hit and I miss the DualSense more than I expected. For fans who only own an Xbox, this is amazing and finally brings all mainline titles from the series to a single console.
Robby lives and breathes video games. When he’s not playing them, he’s talking about them on social media or convincing other people to pick up a controller themselves. He’s online so often, he could practically list the internet as his legal domicile. Belgian games-industry know-it-all.
